Shortly after Joe Biden assumed the presidency of the country with a promise that he would reverse Trump's immigration policies, to adopt a more humane approach to immigration, Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from South Texas, went on to point out the problems of to adopt some measures in this direction.

He warned the Biden administration against easing the entry of unauthorized immigrants, citing its impact on party voters, local hospitals, and the potential for further contamination by the Covid-19 virus. For him, people smugglers can use the easing of Trump's policy to convince many more Latinos to try to cross to the US.

Now Mr. Cuellar, 66, has become one of the administration’s most consistent critics on immigration, appearing on Fox News and at times echoing Republicans, saying immigrants are pouring into the United States because they believe “that the border is open”. His criticism has been met with fierce resistance from Jessica Cisneros, 28, a progressive immigration lawyer who was trying to unseat him in a Democratic runoff on Tuesday 24, according to The New York Times.

As of Wednesday night, Cuellar was ahead of Cisneros by 175 votes, or 0.4 percentage points, out of 45,209 ballots counted.by 175 votes, according to information from The Washington Post that we accessed on the closing day of this publication (26).

“Like other Democratic primary contests, this second round is a battle for the broader direction of a party that is being contested internally between the moderate and progressive wings, whose tensions are heavily centered on the issue of immigration.

In interviews with Democratic leaders and voters in Texas’ 28th Congressional District, which stretches from Laredo to San Antonio, many expressed a deep frustration with both national Democrats and Republicans who use the border as a political backdrop but have failed to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, combat the drug trade or improve legal pathways to citizenship”, according to NYT.

Asked whether Democrats were lacking a cohesive message on immigration, Mr. Cuellar agreed. He said he was most worried that Republicans were filling that vacuum by painting Democrats as soft on crime.

Asked the same question, Ms. Cisneros took a shot at members of Congress out of step with the Biden administration, like Mr. Cuellar, who she said was playing into the kind of right-wing talking points that had fueled white supremacist mass shootings in Buffalo and El Paso.

“For years, conservative Democrats who represent border communities, like Mr. Cuellar, have sought to strike a balance: espousing the benefits of immigration for trade, business and the social fabric of their predominantly Latino communities, while talking tough on the need to increase funds for surveillance and law enforcement along the southern border. But that balance has slipped out of reach. Attempts to pass bipartisan immigration laws have failed for decades, and harsh anti-immigration language and policies have become central Republican approaches since the rise of former President Donald J. Trump”.

Jessica Cisneros' supporters argue that the emphasis on border security has not helped create legal avenues for citizenship, while Republicans' "us versus them" approach to Latinos endangers asylum seekers and immigrants. The political clashes reflect the national divide among Democrats while Republicans have remained broadly united in favor of restrictive immigration policies.

As of the night of May 26, the race for Texas’ 28th District was still undecided, despite Cuellar's slight advantage over Cisneros.

The political clashes reflect the national divide among Democrats while Republicans have remained broadly united in favor of restrictive immigration policies.